WhatsApp blocks two million accounts per month to fight false information

Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp blocks two million accounts a month in the fight against fake accounts, spreading false information and spam. The company has made that known. WhatsApp has algorithms that recognize a large part of the fake accounts upon registration.

For example, the algorithm checks, among other things, the IP address of the registration and whether it is in the same country as where the mobile number is registered, writes Venturebeat based on an interview with an Indian employee. Also immediately sending bulk messages to many different numbers is an indication to the algorithm that it is a fake account, according to the site.

The algorithm now has 20 percent of fake accounts in sight when registering, while the software recognizes 75 percent of the two million blocked accounts per month without human intervention.

The measures are intended to prevent the spread of disinformation via WhatsApp. The focus is on India, where lynchings took place after people thought they had identified kidnappers on the basis of false information spread via WhatsApp. Previously, WhatsApp has started labeling forwarded messages and maximizing the number of chats users can forward messages to to prevent the spread of false information.